Thursday, February 09, 2006

The family of human beings.

The support I've received from my blogger family (not buddies, not faceless digital ghosts) has...Humbled, renewed, refreshed and relabeled by idea of family.

I've been at a loss as to how to fully thank Randy, for an amazing, selfless gift he sent me, (I've considered driving down to LA and mowing his lawn, tooth brushing his grout and changing the oil in his car, and making sure he knows that my kidneys are still available).

I NEED to express my gratitude for the direct influence his actions will/are having in my boys lives."People" are finally paying attention! Since I'm sure Randy won't accept paypal...My husband and I came up with a repayment plan.We will return the gift given to us. We will be advocates. We will take everything we have been given, gathered, learned and pass it on to the next desperate parent with a child that doesn't fit into the standardized box and is being abused and/or neglected by the "system."

The gift:Dear Superintendent: (I cc'd the Principal, teachers, counselor, Director of Special education and the school psychologist)

We are writing about the placement of my two boys in a resource room, in which they are subjected to assaults by other children in the form of spitting, hitting, pushing and even kicks to genetalia. My husband and I have rearranged our schedules so as to be inside that room as much as possible, and we have attempted to resolve this matter with you previously. Regrettably, we have been unsuccessful in obtaining a remedy from you in this outrageous situation.

We have been told that because my boys do not qualify for special education services excluding speech therapy, that their placement in the resource room is not governed by the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. Â§ 1400 et seq., and that we therefore have no right to have input into the resource room placement.

Resource rooms are defined as a supplementary special education service in Washington. Wash. Admin. Code 392-172-174(2)(b) (continuum of alternative service deliveries). This being so, we believe that the placement in a resource room is a de facto special education placement. See Wash. Admin. Code 392-172-045(1) (definition of special education). Moreover, our children have not been evaluated and determined to be eligible for special education services, See Wash. Admin. Code 392-172-108 (evaluation procedures), 392-172-111 (determination of eligibility and parental notification), nor have we been notified of any finding of eligibility for special education services. See Wash. Admin. Code 392-172-111 (parental notification). Additionally, there have been no Individual Education Programs (IEPs) designed for the children, and no IEP conferences have been held, meetings that we would, of course, attend and in which we would participate fully See Wash. Admin. Code 392-172-156 (IEP meetings). Finally, placement in special education without our consent flatly violates the law. See Wash. Admin. Code 392-172-170 (parental consent for initial placement).

We therefore request that our children be removed from the resource room and placed back in their general classroom. If the system believes that the special education resource room placement is appropriate, then we request full evaluations and application of all of the procedural safeguards of the IDEA. If our children do not qualify for special education services, but their disabilities are such that special treatment is necessary, we request an explanation in writing of why that is so. See Wash. Admin. Code 392-172-020(2) (obligation to provide education services for children with disabilities that do not qualify under IDEA).

We want to work with the system to provide the best education for our children. We will not, however, allow our children to be railroaded into a situation that is not appropriate for them. The bullying and assaults in this resource room must stop; the fact that they occur at all speaks poorly for the resource room staff and the school administration. Indeed, it amounts to a deliberate indifference to the safety of the children in the room.

Yours, Keri and Husband.

Sorry about ratting you out and for being so goopy Randy, but you deserve it. (You will be on the graduation announcement list in 2017). (Dear Mrs. Randy, please kiss this man.) (Oh, and Dear Adam and Toby, I know you know, but your Dad is amazing).

p.s.--there's an excellent book you can buy at wrightslaw.com called "From Emotions to Advocacy." My copy of it was written before the recent changes to the IDEA, or I'd send it to you. Anyhow, it gives good advice on advocacy.

I will say that the St. Tammany Parish system performed well re. autism once a few of us parental types convinced them to do some things our way. So there's hope.